Fiber glass fabrics have achieved commercial acceptance for decorative uses such as draperies principally because of their outstanding fire resistant properties. However, woven glass fabrics present special problems arising from inherent physical properties such as limited elongation, chemical inertness, and the abrasive force of glass on glass. These properties are observed as problems in areas such as limited intensity and variety of colors, inadequate color fastness and wash fastness, limited abrasion resistance, increased crocking, and an unfavorable "hand".
It is known to apply a resin binder or coating to woven fiber glass fabrics to encapsulate the exposed yarn surfaces. The resin coating provides a yarn with a more resilient finish which reduces abrasion and provides a desirable "hand" to the fabric. The resin coating also constitutes a dye receptive layer which can be used to impart color to the fabric. It is customary to apply the resin binder in the form of an aqueous emulsion or dispersion typically having resin concentrations of 3 to 6 weight percent.
The physical properties of the prior art emulsion and dispersion coating solutions result in a topical treatment to the glass yarn which does not appreciably penetrate the surface of the yarn to wet the component strands or filaments or the points of contact at the crossovers of warp and filling yarns in the treated fiber glass fabric. When the fabric (particularly an open weave fabric) is subjected to mechanical stress, the overlapping yarns shift position and reveal a white spot where no resin or dye has penetrated. An additional disadvantage of aqueous systems is that they require appreciable processing time and expenditure of energy to evaporate contained water. Still another limitation of the aqueous systems is that the variety of commercially available resins which may be dispersed or emulsified in aqueous media is limited.